Album Review: Waxahatchee- Cerulean Salt

THE SECOND album from Philadelphia based, Katie Crutchfield, is set to be the underground hit of the summer and the soundtrack to melancholic teens across the land.

Since last years debut, American Weekend, Cruchfield now sounds much more self-assured with her voice and she doesn’t hide behind the recording, but instead wears her heart completely on her sleeve.

Like, American Weekend, this album was recorded at home by Crutchfield, but this time in Philadelphia and not her home in Alabama.(Where lake Waxahatchee is nearby).

Katie was a member of the Southern Punk-band, P.S Elliot and had been playing and touring with her sister, Allison since she was 15 and now she’s in her mid twenties she covers themes like regret, reflection, nostalgia and love, similar to her idol, Morrissey.

The opening song, Hollow Bedroom,starts as simple as it gets, a guitar and a voice but ends up being a perfect prelude to just how catchy this album ends up being.

Cerulean Salt is scattered with lines and verses that are delivered so nonchalantly that you’ll probably miss them the first time around.

On Swan Drive she subtly sings : “I’m ruled by seasons and sadness that’s inexplicable”, while on Dixie cups and Jars she describes a wedding with a haunting amount of detail: “make-up sits on your face like tar-the champagne flutes poorly engineered-employ dixey cups and jars”

For me, without a doubt the title track and probably the one that people will end up hearing on some sort of sitcom is, Coast to Coast.

The main rif is catchy and the carefree oohs are definitely the trademark of a good guitar song in the 00′s and they feature again on Peace and Quiet, which sounds like early Manchester Orchestra.

Unlike most of the over produced music that is churned out, Cerulean Salt is much more honest and heartfelt while maintaining elements of still being industry-aware but far from the point where you’ll be hearing Nick Grimshaw playing it on a morning.